Cherry blossom

Cherry blossom
8" x 12"

For me May is the finest time of the year to be outside painting in the UK, everything has burst into life and the greens are lush and fresh, there are stunning displays of blossom everywhere you look, all the trees and hedgerows are putting on their best show and when the sun is shining there is nothing more glorious.

And yet every May I seem to have a crazy busy schedule with travelling, teaching, studio painting for deadlines... you name it. I often get to the end of May and feel I've missed the best of the year and hardly managed any plein air time.

So around eight months ago I blocked out this May in my diary as far as possible as 'plein air painting' and it seems to have done the trick! Although I have had other commitments to manage I have also made sure to put everything aside when we have a beautiful day and get out somewhere with my paints.

And I didn't have to travel far for these little studies of cherry blossom, painted from my garden looking at my neighbours trees. 

With these I wasn't trying to make a composition of a usual 'finished painting' for me, I was trying really hard just to match spots of colour and value with what I was seeing. I felt that the blossom was worthy of serious attention in itself and worked really hard with the colours and values rather than 'making do'. 

And then as it turned out, they would make rather nice little paintings framed up after all!

Cherry trees
8" x 10"

Sketches of ladies

Oil sketch of friends in repose

Then I took the high key colour palette and used it to paint these small sketches in oil, based on my line drawings from the day spa and using a little artistic license regarding backgrounds etc. I just can't wait to be able to paint like this outside in summer. I just need to find willing models. 

In the meantime, if you're local and willing to spend a few hours sitting around in your dressing gown for me please get in touch!

Oil sketch of friends in repose

A new (P)interest

Study after Richard Emil Miller
1875 - 1943

I was telling you yesterday about my excitement in discovering Pinterest and being able to gather paintings that I find enormously inspiring together in one place. I am also discovering new artists at the same time, like Richard E Miller, an American impressionist. I had never heard of him until I came across this painting of his on Pinterest. He worked for some time at Giverny, and painted lots of 'ladies at leisure', a genre of paintings that I love.

The main thing I notice about my many 'pins' (small images clipped together on a 'board') is the great impact each one has on even a tiny thumbnail size, and the immediate statement that the colour palette makes.

I have long adored pinks and greens together and decided I had to have a play with this high key colour palette. I wasn't trying to achieve a careful copy or drawing but aiming to get the same sorts of colours working together.

 

Richard E Miller
Reading in the garden

Rose Desire with white feathers

Rose Desire with white feathers
Oil on canvas 27 & 1/2" x 23 & 1/2"

I'm really pleased with this one from yesterday's session. It was fantastic to paint large again and be able to use my whole arm! There's a little bit more I want to do to it, but not very much at all. I love the sketchiness, the gestural marks, the subject, the pose, the white feathers, the colours in her hair and skin. Love it! Reminds me of a Toulouse-Lautrec!

You can imagine what's been on my mind today! I am so excited, and we are catching the train to London first thing in the morning. I will try to blog from my phone tomorrow evening and may even get a preparatory painting done! I'm looking forward to seeing the large boats with sails that are already lining the banks of the Thames, where they will stay because they are too tall to pass under the bridges.
I'm also looking forward to seeing flags and bunting - fourteen miles of bunting!

I've been prepping my canvasses and boards today and I've been over to the SAA to collect nine brand spanking new paintbrushes and a posh brush holder and a dozen tubes of paint especially for the Big Event, and better still all have been paid for with my prize money! :-)

Wanted to show you my souvenir 'Jubilee bunting' necklace - and ridiculously excited face!

And now I really must go and pack...

Rose Desire - black feathers

Rose Desire - black feathers
Oil on canvas 18" x 14"

I've had a happy, happy day today. Firstly, my Artist of the Year prizes and certificate all arrived in the post - unexpected! Here's a photo of my beautiful crystal goblet!

Secondly, I had this gorgeous burlesque performer to pose for me! It was fantastic, and I can't wait until she can come back again!
This is the second of two paintings that I managed to complete during our sitting! In case you are wondering, her arm has a tattoo 'sleeve', which is much more intricate than I have painted it - all pinks and turquoise.

I didn't blog yesterday because I was out shopping for a special outfit for the Jubilee Pageant - red, white and blue!
The weather doesn't seem to be playing ball though... latest reports are predicting 12 degrees, rain, and lots of wind on the bridge! I may have to rethink the dress....

Only three more sleeps...

Cupcake and roses

Cupcake and roses
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Oils on stretched canvas, 10" x 12"
I wanted to work again with the same subject that I was using for the thirty minute exercise, and this time get the teacup in! It's a teacup filled with candle, it's very pretty. I also wanted to use the same colour palette and even more importantly, I wanted the same boldness about the brushstrokes. And economy! I wanted to use the minimum of brushstrokes as necessary, place a mark and leave it alone.
I didn't have a time limit this time! I think I've achieved everything I set out to do, I like it very much! Would quite happily keep it but I'll put it up for auction in case one of you wants a chance!

Here's a detail, lovely smooth lusciousness...

Yum, I could eat those colours... or I could actually go and eat the cake I suppose...

Ten min prim

Ten minute primula
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I'm still thinking about my faster painting workshop and decided to challenge myself with a ten minute time restriction today! Simple enough subject, small board (18 x 13 cms) and paints ready to go.... it was achievable I think!
It's such a good exercise as it forces you to consider what are the most important things about the subject that you need to get down!
Here's a close up so you can see how lush and thick the paint application was...

Still euphoric over the success of yesterday's thirty minute painting I find myself asking why isn't it possible for me to do ten such paintings in a single day? It's a great theory isn't it? So why doesn't it actually WORK like that?! Answers on a postcard please...


Hmm... sounds like a challenge though...

Fred's paddock in snow

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Fred's paddock in snow

I loved the long deep shadows and the pinky warmth from the setting sun, the patterns of the stone wall broken up by snow and the way the trees seem to huddle together, bracing themselves for more snow to come...
Oils on canvas board, 24 x 18 cms

Cupcake with parasol

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Cupcake with parasol

Here's a Waitrose cupcake painting with a cute paper parasol added for that real party feel! This painting is oil on linen canvas, sized 12" x 12", and at the top and bottom and in gaps you can see the natural colour of the linen left showing. I always think it's too nice to cover completely!
I started this painting with an underpainting of the major complimentary colours, for example the lemon coloured cupcake was first painted in violet and the rose coloured parasol is green underneath. You can see the colours peeking through, giving a special vibrancy.
It would make a lovely birthday gift I think!
Today I've been very busy working on printing the pages of my little journal, drawings from Brehat! Apologies if you are still waiting for one, it's all starting to come together now! ;)

Pink sparkly shoes

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Pink sparkly shoes

These are my lovely pink sequinned plimsolls! I had intended to paint outdoors today but it was strangely foggy all morning! Although it turned out to be glorious sunshine all afternoon I had already embarked on this painting after the light catching the sequins had caught my eye! There were all these beautiful pink reflections on the surface behind also. I'm really pleased with the colours and the thick squidgy creaminess of the paint! Another great one for touching... when it's dry!
I bought these shoes from a charity shop for £2 and they had never been worn, certainly not outside. I have always loved them and wearing them never fails to lift my spirits! Sadly they're deteriorating a little here and there so I don't know how much longer we'll be together, which makes me even happier that they've been portrayed on canvas today.
This painting is oils on a deep sided box canvas, 25 x 25cms and is ready to hang straight on the wall without a frame. Please click on the 'click to bid' link above to enter the online auction to win this painting. Bidding will start at $120 which is the equivalent of £76.71!